Here’s a summary of recent articles and blogs related to fundraising and nonprofit organizations. As always, please forward this to others who might benefit from the information. Thanks again for reading!
Awareness / Communications
- Content Marketing a Challenge for Nonprofits The Content Marketing Institute and Blackbaud recently published a study of nonprofits and their use of content marketing. Here are some of the findings from the study. By Joanne Fritz
- Nonprofit Message Tip—What’s Vital BUT Unknown? Your organization has info points that are vital but unknown. Discover what they are and highlight them a.s.a.p.! They may be the tipping point for your year-end fundraising campaign. By Nancy Schwartz
- 6 Ways To Improve Your Nonprofit’s Marketing & PR Efforts Your nonprofit’s good work won’t speak for itself. Maybe you take a quiet satisfaction in a job well done. Good for you! But if you’re the only one who knows what a great job your organization did, you’re cheating yourself. Who will donate if they don’t know what a difference it makes? By Dennis Fischman
- How to Get User-Generated Content From Supporters: Ease Them Into It Nonprofits have a great story to tell, but how can you stand out in a crowded field of generic content marketing? By tapping into that wellspring of stories each one of your supporters and beneficiaries have. But it’s easier said than done. By Fernando Labastida
- Inspiring Philanthropy: Build Your Case For Support Your donors can likely summarize your purpose (mission) and even list off some of your recent accomplishments (impact). But can they speak passionately and inspire others to your cause. By Brendan Kinney
What Others Are Doing
- 4 High-Impact Online Fundraising Videos Creating a video for online fundraising always starts with a plot. Here’s a roundup of four videos, each with unique plots, that you can follow as examples for your next fundraising video. By Neesha Roberts
- YMCA charity programs harvest food for hungry In an effort to reduce hunger in the area, the YMCA at Virginia Tech has created a variety of programs that grow or donate food to charities. By Michelle Stark
- How Better Community Engagement Led to This EXTREME Fundraising Event This is definitely not your average fundraising event! See what happened when the Millionair Club Charity made a stronger effort to get out in the community to meet new people and form a wider diversity of relationships. Guest Post by Tim Takechi via Kivi Leroux Miller
- How one nonprofit loved their lapsed members back Well, Audubon decided to begin a “don’t worry about it” forgiveness program for their 20 year members who hadn’t renewed their membership. Instead of allowing their membership to lapse, each 20 year lapsed member received a carefully handwritten note on one of Audubon’s stunning bird note cards. By Gayle Gifford
Fundraising Planning
- The Power of Statistically Valid Fundraising Outcomes I wonder how many nonprofit missions – and their techniques/practices – have been proven to produce statistically valid results. Are we sometimes just doing what feels good or what we think will work instead of what can truly make a long-term difference? By Jay Love
- 4 Actions You Can Take Today to Raise More Year-End Money If you’re like most organizations, you might get 40% or more of your total fundraising revenue in the last few weeks of the year. That’s a HUGE deal. So what are you going to do differently this year to raise more year-end dollars? By Amy Eisenstein
- Fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint You’ve probably heard it before…life is a marathon, not a sprint. Well the same holds true in the fundraising world. Except when it doesn’t. Nope, the few short weeks of November and December is when it is time to put your game face on and just go for it. By Sandy Rees
- Your Boss Wants ‘The Plan’ Fundraisers have pulled the trigger on year-end fundraising, and with fingers crossed for a successful year-end feeding frenzy, most have turned their attention to selling their 2014 budgets to their bosses. We gave Agitator readers a chance to rate their CEOs. By Tom Belford
- What donors want The folks at nonprofit research and consulting firm Root Cause have released a new report that sheds more light on the motivation behind a donor’s decision-making process– Informed Giving: What Donors Want and How Nonprofits can Provide It. By Caryn Stein
Fundraising Tactics
- How to get more from the donors you have A common fundraising strategy is to keep getting more and more new donors, without building stronger relationship with the donors you already have. That is a quick path to failure. By Jeff Brooks
- Retention: Eliminating Guesswork The likelihood of boosting retention in your organization will occur only when fundraisers, communications folks, donor service managers, program officers, CEOs and board members understand why donors stay or leave. By Roger Craver
- How To Make Your Donors Feel Like Heroes As we approach the peak of end of year fundraising I encourage you to take a short break to call your major gift donors and congratulate them on how they are making an impact. By Rachel Muir
- Charities latch onto ‘crowdsourcing’ Instead of looking for a few large donors, they’re finding that acquiring many small ones is an effective way to battle homelessness, poverty, hunger, and so on. By Jeremiah Hall
- Fundraiser Toolkit: Working the Room I had a colleague who told me, as we prepared to attend a pre-opening donor event at an art museum, that these events were very difficult for her. There is no question that I get energy from the people around me. But as a development officer I have to prepare to be “ready” for these events. By Beth Ann Locke
Online / Technology
- 7 Tips to Start a Guest Blogging Program Many organizations have someone in the celebrity realm championing their cause, and even if that person is only a celeb in your community, that’s a big deal to your constituents. Guest blog posts and quotes are a great way to bring in diverse voices and to talk about niche issues. By Allyson Kapin
- Thank You MailChimp As this study from email firm MailChimp indicates, a single word in the subject line can make a big difference in open rates. By Tom Belford
- How Nonprofits Can “Go Mobile” On A Budget You have surely heard plenty about the rising tide of mobile technology and its increasing importance for online marketing and fundraising. And the fact is, the time for mobile has come. Guest Post By Daniel Buckley via Brendan Kinney
- Manage Your Nonprofit’s Twitter Presence in Just 15 Minutes a Day Over the past two years, Twitter has gone from a relatively niche “micro blogging” service to a cultural and financial phenom. By Brendan Kinney
- Facebook for Nonprofits: Moving Your Marketing Beyond the ‘Like’ Facebook has become a formidable communications channel for all—including nonprofits. With over one billion active users, there’s a good chance some or all of your community lives there. So how do you reach your supporters and get them to do more than “like” your page? By Farra Trompeter
Leadership / News
- 7 Best Kept Secrets About the Nonprofit Sector’s Economic Impact While the government and for-profit sectors faltered over the last decade, the nonprofit sector has actually grown while providing steady income for millions of employees. By Joanne Fritz
- 10 Fundraising Responsibilities of Every Board Member What are a board member’s appropriate responsibilities when it comes to fundraising? Here’s my list – of reasonable, realistic, doable activities that EVERY single board member can do. By Gail Perry
- Tainted Donors and Donations | The Nonprofit Legal Blog Nonprofit institutions often face difficult decisions when their donors or donations become tainted as a result of a scandal. A donor’s negative reputation easily taints a gift. By The Asbahi Law Group
- Religious Americans Give More, New Study Finds The more important religion is to a person, the more likely that person is to give to a charity of any kind, according to new research. By Alex Daniels
- $9-Billion in Gifts at Risk if Deduction Is Reduced, Study Forecasts As nonprofits begin a new round of lobbying against President Obama’s longstanding efforts to limit the value of the charitable deduction, the American Enterprise Institute estimates that such a move would prompt donors to withhold more than $9 billion in gifts a year. By Alex Daniels